


She Takes His Hand

by NyxEtoile, OlivesAwl



Series: Learn to Live with the Unimaginable [4]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, F/M, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Pregnancy, Surprises
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-01-31 22:13:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18600430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NyxEtoile/pseuds/NyxEtoile, https://archiveofourown.org/users/OlivesAwl/pseuds/OlivesAwl
Summary: "You almost had me convinced his time," she told him, sniffling loudly. "Next time you die I'm going to need to see a body."





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These are the last two little side stories, just visiting the other couples living in the compound. But they're both mostly smut (hence, E).

She was going to murder that man.

Pepper stared at her phone, displaying a message that the call had been disconnected. An alien ship descended on Manhattan, blew up some stuff, Tony got on it—because of course he did—and then it left the planet.

Slowly she sank down onto her couch. After their encounter with the wizard, Tony had begged her to go home, keep her head down, and wait. He was _so_ rattled she didn't even think about arguing. He couldn't concentrate if he was worried about her, and if he couldn't concentrate he was going to get himself killed.

Now he'd gone to freaking space. She was so angry she couldn't see straight. It was a better emotion to get trapped in than anxiety and fear, even if those were more accurate.

There was absolutely nothing she could do but wait and watch the news. She called Rhodey, but he had about as much information as she did. In desperation, she tried the emergency number she had for Nick Fury. Even though SHIELD was long gone, he still had his head in with all this weird stuff.

He answered with, "Yeah, I don't know what the hell is going on either."

"Tony got on that ship before it left."

His sigh was audible. "Of course he did. Where are you? I've got Hill with me, we can regroup."

"Manhattan. West 57th."

"We'll be there in a couple hours," he said.

Pepper scrubbed her hand over her face, feeling nauseous. "Thanks."

She did very little but chew her nails and pace, waiting for them. The news wasn't helpful, and only made her anxiety ramp up. She ignored calls from the board and breathed a sigh of relief when Fury and Hill finally showed up.

It was short lived. A few minutes later, both of them—and half the world—turned to dust.

*

Panic wasn't productive. But sometimes, it was all you could feel. Pepper let it happen a bit. She went back upstairs, cried, threw up, and then tried to get ahold of anyone she could—with absolutely no luck. None of the people FRIDAY could patch her directly to and avoid the clogged phone lines picked up.

Huge numbers of people all over the world had simply disintegrated. The news valiantly kept reporting. Out the window, she could see the chaos below. She stood for a long time, hands pressed against the glass watching the fires all over the city, and the wrecked and gridlocked cars. There was a 747 upside down and burning in Central Park.

It was like the end of the world.

There would be a national emergency. Martial law. "FRIDAY. What's the safest place I can go that's got good supplies?" Now she wished she'd let Tony build that bunker.

She didn't know if she'd ever see him again. But she couldn't think about that now.

"The Avengers compound in upstate New York is well supplied and protected," FRIDAY replied.

"Question two, how the hell do I get up there?"

"Given the current traffic conditions, I would suggest taking a suit. I can pilot it for you."

The view beneath her as she flew was just as awful. Vehicles of every type, crashed and burning, the whole way up the New York Thruway.

At the compound she found no people but plenty of food, and computer equipment. She had a lot of employees, people she was responsible for. And work kept her busy.

It was two days before she heard the quinjet's engines outside.

She went out to meet it, unsure what, if anything, to hope for. The team piled out of the back. Steve and Nat. Thor, Bruce. Rhodey came off last and the look on his face told her he'd been hoping to find Tony with her.

Tears started, and she couldn't stop them. He came forward to hug her, and she cried into his shoulder. He rubbed her back, rocking her. After a moment she heard him sniffling as well.

The rest left them to it, she was sure she hadn't been the only one to break down in the last few days.

Eventually, they all ended up inside. She busied herself making coffee while they told her about the Battle of Wakanda, and Thanos, and their loss. They had a walking, talking sentient raccoon they'd acquired that she hadn't noticed getting off the plane. Pepper wasn't phased by strange anymore, and she kind of liked the little guy. His blunt, sarcastic way of speaking reminded her of Tony when he was in a certain mood. This crowd needed someone who'd shout and say fuck regularly.

Pepper had old and very weird pager Nick Fury had been trying to operate when he disintegrated. It had seemed important and she'd shoved it in her pocket before fleeing back to her apartment. Rocket got it working and it summoned another superhero, one stronger and more durable than Thor with more power than Wanda had had. They quickly cooked up a plan to find Thanos, fight him again, and reverse the snap.

It sounded far fetched and suicidal, something Pepper had no real intention of putting any hope into. They were all wounded and raring for another Last Stand. She had other things to worry about.

Right before Strange and Bruce had shown up, Tony had detailed for her a strange dream he had where they had a son, and then told her he thought the dream meant she was pregnant. Pepper'd tried not to roll her eyes when she told him no. Because it was eye-rolling-ly farfetched. She was over 40 and having hot flashes, and he'd been exposed to so much radiation of the course of a decade as Iron Man he was probably shooting blanks.

Mostly because of the hot flashes, she took birth control anyway. The kind that stopped her period, so she didn't actually, technically, know. The queasiness she attributed to shock stuck around, and she couldn't get the thought out of her head. Despite it being completely ridiculous.

Shed stopped her pill because her partner was dead, so who fucking cared. She waited for a period for a week while they were all down in the lab trying to get interspace communications working.

"FRIDAY, would you happen to know if there are any pregnancy tests if the medical supplies?"

"There are not," she replied, and Pepper swore she could hear sympathy in the AI's voice. "I can, however, analyze a blood sample."

She sighed. Bruce Banner was a doctor. He could probably draw blood.

He looked a little flummoxed when she asked, but did it for her without prying. At least not out loud. He gave her several concerned looks, however. She didn't know how to operate the medical equipment, so he showed her where to put the blood sample. 

She _assumed_ FRIDAY would need some processing time and then she could request results. Instead, Bruce hadn't even closed the sharps container when the ceiling announced. "Your human chorionic gonadotropin level is 7,156."

She glanced up at the ceiling. "What does that even-"

"It means you're pregnant," Bruce said gently. "Very pregnant."

Putting her hands over her eyes, Pepper asked, "Is it possible to be so smart you're psychic?"

"I have a very long answer to that, but it boils down to probably not."

She sank back down into the chair. "He had a dream we had a kid, and was convinced it meant I was pregnant. I thought it was nuts. It is nuts. This is impossible."

Bruce pointed at the blood test. "Your numbers indicate it's not. Without examining both of you I can't tell you what the actual odds are. But women in their forties have accidents all the time."

Later—much later—he would tell her how it wasn't unusual for men to pick up on changes in their partner's body, how she felt or smelled, without noticing consciously, and that may have been what made it into Tony's dream. But right now, she just wanted to lock herself in her room and cry.

She was going to have to name it Morgan like the kid in the dream, wasn't she?

*

They picked up a transmission from space. Tony had gotten off the planet he'd ended up on, and tried to make it home. He'd run out of food, water, and air.

Rhodey came to tell her. She listened to the message, a heartbreaking, heartbroken goodbye to her. _I know we said no more surprises, but I was hoping to pull off one last one._

 _Oh, honey,_ she thought, _You have no idea._

She sobbed so hard she threw up.

*

Pepper's skepticism did her good. You couldn't be disappointed if you had no hope. They killed Thanos on their second attempt, but could not undo what he'd done.

She didn't care anymore. She was completely and utterly numb. Stark Industries was still shut down, though she was funding payroll anyway out of Tony's fortune. As with everything else lately, why the fuck not?

Steve Rogers' girlfriend showed up. Sharon seemed like a perfectly nice woman, but Pepper could not express how much she did not want to see anyone kissing in her god damn kitchen at 7AM when she couldn't even have any coffee.

All she could have was candy and soda and mouthwash. Puking was her primary recreational activity. It was as awful as anything had ever been awful.

Natasha, of all people, became her person to lean on. She held her hair while she puked, baked all manner of desserts with hidden protein to keep her healthy. On good days, she told her tales from Laura's pregnancies and on bad ones she was perfectly willing to be petty and jealous over ice cream.

Then they got another message from space. This one important enough to get everyone lined up on the lawn.

*

For all the complaining Valkyrie had done on their long journey through space, it went down about how Tony expected. Clearly she and Thor had a thing. There was probably further opportunity for teasing, particularly if they'd started kissing. . . but Pepper came into his field of vision and he forgot all about anyone or anything else.

She came running and hit him hard enough to knock him on his ass. Then she was in his lap, crying and laughing and kissing his face. He just held onto her, taking deep breaths of her scent, assuring himself he wasn't dreaming.

"You almost had me convinced his time," she told him, sniffling loudly. "Next time you die I'm going to need to see a body."

He had to laugh, kissing her soundly. "You can hold my body in state. Like a king."

She held her face in his hands. "You okay?"

"I am. Really. I mean, I'd love some earth food and a real shower, but mostly I'm okay." He could see Rhodey hovering behind Pepper and stood, pulling her up with him.

Rhodey hugged him as hard as Pepper had. "You're a fucking cat with all your extra lives."

"This one was a surprise even to me." Bruce came over and he hugged him as well. "Hey big guy."

"Welcome back to the land of the living."

A few feet away, Tony could see Steve and Natasha standing there, waiting but not coming any closer. Perhaps they were concerned there might be a fistfight. Neither of them moved as he walked towards them. He and Nat were pretty square, but Steve he hadn't talked to since they last tried to kill each other.

Half the world was dead. Including Barnes. After his brush with suffocation and during his long journey through space, Tony had spent a lot of time wondering if they'd have been able to beat Thanos if they'd been a functioning team. If he and Steve had handled their conflict with something other than violence.

After a tense silence while Tony tried to think of something quippy to say, Steve broke the ice with, "It's good to see you."

Good enough. "You too, Steve." Tony stuck out a hand."Thanks for holding down the fort." 

Steve grinned, shook his hand, and the tension dissipated. Nat decided that was good enough for her to hug Tony, and then he noticed the blonde woman behind Steve. "Hi, Sharon."

"Hi, Tony. Long time no see." He stepped closer and she hugged him as well.

Pepper hovered to his left. "So I noticed we have quite a large group of people to house and feed. I'll need to—"

"We've got it," Sharon said. "The rest of us will handle it. You guys go inside, the food is probably still warm."

Pepper looked ready to argue and/or fret, but Sharon waved her hands and Tony gave her a little tug, heading towards the building. In the kitchen she nudged him into a chair, and brought him a plate of food. It was absolutely the best food he'd ever eaten, and he didn't really pay attention to what it was. Everything was better here. Hell, his mind was even imagining that Pepper's boobs were bigger.

When the worst of his hunger was stated, he leaned back, reaching over to rub Pepper's shoulder. "Is this all that's left?"

"Of dinner?"

"Of us. The team. Our people."

"Ah. Yes, this is it." She squeezed his hand. "You want to come have that shower?"

Sighing, he nodded. "Yeah." Now probably wasn't the best time to start thinking about casualty count.

Pepper had to dig in the back of their closet to find him something to wear. "I got rid of most of your clothes," she called, her voice muffled. She'd redecorated the room, too. "I saw you everywhere and I just couldn't. . ."

He'd gone into the bathroom to turn the shower on. "I completely understand." Weird as it felt.

"Same for the toiletries," she gestured at the shower.

"I suppose I'll just smell like flowers for a few days."

She rubbed his arm. "Need somebody to wash your back?"

He grinned and cupped her waist, tugging her close to kiss. "Yes please." She hummed in agreement, and then turned to pull her t-shirt off. He didn't think he was imagining her breasts were bigger, as they were spilling out of her bra. They distracted him, while he pulled off his shirt—which was so ratty it probably should be burned. She turned to feel the water and he caught her in profile. Her abdomen had a small, but very distinct bump.

For a moment, his heart seemed to stop. "Hey, honey? Don't kill me, but have you put on some weight?" He pointed at her stomach. He knew what that little bump there must mean. But he also knew it was impossible.

Her eyes drifted down. "Natasha make a lot of cookies," she said. 

He'd known her 20 years, he could tell when she was bullshitting him. And he really thought his heart might stop. "Pepper. . ."

She cradled both her hands over it, something no woman did for the results of too many chocolate chip cookies. Then she turned. "You're going to think your dreams are psychic now, aren't you?"

"I absolutely am. One hundred percent. And you won't be able to argue with me at all."

Pepper chuckled, and ducked her head. "I didn't know. I found out after you were—we thought—dead." 

"But everything's okay? You're healthy and the baby is okay and no one is worried?"

"She's fine. So am I." She came close to him. "You, on the other hand, look like you're about to faint."

Ignoring her, he cupped his hands over her belly."She?" Pepper nodded, tears sliding down her cheeks. He rested his forehead on hers, hands still on her bump—over his _daughter_ —and kissed her again.

She wiggled down the yoga pants she was wearing and murmured, "Come shower."

"If you insist," he replied, letting her go to shed his equally destroyed pants and step into the warm spray. She tucked herself in his arms and they just stood in the water for the longest time. For a moment he entertained the idea that this wasn't real, that he was still on that broken, drifting ship running out of air. Hypoxia did strange things to the human brain.

He was pretty sure Valkyrie and the Asgardian ship had been real, though. He couldn't dream up the mess that was that electrical system. So if that was real, by extension this was real too. It was a weird way to reassure himself, but hey, whatever worked.

She had her head on his shoulder, her arms around his waist. "I thought I lost you."

"It was a close one," he admitted, kissing her temple. "Like to avoid that in the future."

"You damn well better, you're going to be a father."

"Sadly, think there'll be plenty of mundane crises for me to deal with."

"Probably." She sighed, and stepped back, reaching for the shampoo. "We got your message. Rocket—he's the sentient raccoon, if nobody mentioned that—Rocket was scanning for signals from his ship and picked it up. I must have listened to it hundred times." She turned them so his hair was in the spray, and then she dumped some shampoo in her hand.

He stood still, leaning into her to touch as she massaged his scalp and neck. "I missed you," he told her. "So much."

"I missed you, too. It's been really hard. I think Morgan is the only reason I reliably got out of bed or ate food." She said that casually, but it wasn't a casual thing to say.

He turned her a little so he could kiss her properly. "I will take excellent care of you now. To make up for lost time."

"I know you will," she murmured against his mouth. "I know." He turned under the spray to rinse his hair out, then pushed her against the closest wall, deepening the kiss. She inhaled through her nose and wrapped her arms around his neck. He mapped his hands over her skin, remembering what was familiar and discovering what was different.

Despite the impression his reputation might give, Tony took fidelity pretty seriously--and he hadn't wanted anyone but Pepper, anyway. So it had been a good decade since he'd had a woman's breast spill out of his hand.

"I'm especially sorry I missed these growing," he told her, dropping a kiss on the soft skin.

"Up until very recently I wouldn't have let--" She broke off with a gasp and her body shuddered when he stroked his thumb over her nipple. It was such a strong reaction he went still, which got him a very firm, "Do that again."

Grinning, he obliged, only to have her shudder again. "Good?"

"Um. Yeah." He cupped both breasts and repeated the motion, making her moan and tip her head back against the tile. He knew her body as well as his own, and this was completely new. Unable to resist, he bent down and took one nipple into his mouth, sucking hard. She cried out and her nails dug into his arms. He kissed across to the other breast and her cries shifted in pitch. One of his thighs was between her legs, just the way they were standing, but she arched off the wall to grind herself against it. "Don't stop, please don't stop." Her whole body was tense and he realized she was about a second away from coming.

Tucking his arm around her, he held her firmer against him and sucked again, lapping at the peak with the tip of his tongue. When she started to shudder, he tightened his arm, holding her up as she rode it out.

She slumped against him, trying to catch her breath. "Holy shit."

Tony grinned, rubbing her back as she calmed. "That was fun."

"That has. . . never happened before."

"Really?" He'd known it had never happened with _him_ , but. . . "Want me to do it again?"

She laughed, and it was honestly the most beautiful sound he'd ever heard. "How about we get out of this shower first? Pregnancy is doing some weird things to my balance."

"Yes, ma'am." He kissed her again and reached to turn the water off as they climbed out of the shower.


	2. Chapter 2

This was, a little bit, a surreal experience. Pepper had heard all the usual stories about ramped up sex drives during the middle of pregnancies. But she'd been so sick in the early days, and then just couldn't shake her sadness—and she didn't have a partner, so what did it matter anyway? Her subconscious apparently disagreed, because she's started having these intense, erotic dreams, mixes of imagination and memory. She'd wake in the morning in an empty bed and start her day in tears.

She was suddenly overcome with the fear that this was just a very clear one of those dreams. That she'd wake up in the morning and he would be gone.

Halfway to the bed, wrapped in a towel she stopped in her tracks and couldn't shake the thought. Tony clearly noticed because he stopped walking, too. Before he could ask, she said, "I'm afraid this isn't real."

He blinked. "I had that same thought in the shower. That it might be a hallucination or something."

"I suppose we'll be crazy together." She kissed him then, needing the touch, the contact, more than anything. His hands slid over her back, pulling her close to him. The kiss deepened and he danced her towards the bed.

"I'm here," he murmured against her mouth. "I promise."

Her legs his the back of the bed and she put her hands on his chest before she could tumble backwards. "Hang on. Don't put your weight on me."

He frowned, then jumped back a little. "Oh, right. Sorry." He shifted, climbing onto the bed and tugging her towards him.

She crawled into his lap and kissed him. "You don't have to be too. . ." His hand was between her legs and her thoughts scattered, along with whatever she was going to say. She was so sensitive everything felt dialed all the way up.

"Ah, I see you had some new buttons installed here, too." Normally, that smug tone of his drove her nuts, but tonight she was going to let him get away with it.

"S-same buttons," she stuttered as his thumb circled her clit. "Diff-different setting." He leaned back and moved her so he could get her nipple in his mouth again, and it shot right through her just like before. It felt so good. Everything felt so good. His fingers pressed inside her and curled up, and her elbows buckled. "Oh, God," she whispered. What the hell was happening to her? Maybe this was a dream after all. "I think I'm going to come again."

He said something around her breast that sounded like "Good," before he tugged her nipple with his teeth and pressed inside her at the same time. It rushed through her again and the entire room spun. She lost her balance and he settled her down on top of the blanket—which was pink and had flowers on it because she'd wanted something completely different.

If she was dreaming this, he would not look that smug. It wasn't just the smug. It was a look that reminded her of the very beginning of their relationship. That night after the Stark Expo when they stayed up until dawn taking each other apart. The way he looked when he had a brand new toy he hadn't figured out yet.

Once she'd calmed a bit, he leaned over to kiss her. "I'm going to build you so many toys."

"Boxed up all the ones I had," she told him. He'd made them for her. "Made me sad." 

"Your body is different," he said, absently stroking her sex and making her shudder. "You feel different. You need new toys." She made an inarticulate noise of pleasure, and his mouth quirked. "I wonder if you taste different."

Oh, that might actually kill her. "I don't know if. . ." But he was already focused on the new puzzle in front of him.

She did not die. She did, however, come so hard and so intensely she might have seen God.

When she came back down to Earth he was sitting next to her, one warm hand on her hip, watching her with a mix of pride and concern. When her eyes fluttered open, he grinned, "Welcome back."

"Hmm. Um." Words. She knew how to use words. "Are we _sure_ this isn't something my subconscious cooked up?"

"I feel pretty real," he told her. "But that's probably what I'd say in a dream, too."

"Probably." Pepper sat up so she could kiss him. She flattened her hand on his chest and traced the scar where the arc reactor had been. "You do feel pretty real," she added. She trailed her fingers down his stomach and wrapped her hand around his cock. Air hissed through his teeth. "Are you done with your new puzzle enough to let me have a turn?"

"Absolutely. You've been very patient."

She moved, swinging one of her legs over to straddle him. It amazed her she could still be capable of moving, let alone turned on. Hormones were a wonderful thing. They kissed as she sank down and he filled her, and it felt unbelievably good. Slowly she rolled her hips. "Admittedly this feels better. . .than any of my other dreams."

He groaned, hands coming up to cup her hips as she moved. "It certainly feels better than anything I've been dreaming about."

She honestly could not remember the last time sex had felt this good. Maybe ever. But still. "Don't. . . you don't have to wait for me. Three was plenty." No sooner had she said that than she felt his thumb brush across her clit, and she bit off a cry. "That wasn't a challenge."

"Honestly, Pep, it's like you don't know me at all." He stroked circles around her clit, lifting up into her strokes as she rode him. "I want to watch it. One more time."

She wanted to answer but she couldn't, because her thoughts weren't much more than a haze. She didn't even have to reach for it, just move and feel and let him touch her. She held onto him and gasped and shook. It was overwhelming and tears flooded her eyes; she pressed her face into his shoulder so he wouldn't see. When she felt him shudder, she held on tight. He arched into her twice, heat flooding her, then they sank back on the bed, tangled up together.

Crying was happening in earnest now, and she couldn't stop it. He seemed to understand, and he just rubbed her back and made soothing noises. When she calmed down he moved them so they could get under the covers. She drifted off, part of her still afraid in the morning she'd wake to an empty bed.

He was, in fact, there when she woke up the next morning, sore and starving. She prodded him lightly, but he didn't budge, so she decided to feed herself before her rumbling stomach woke the house.

Nat was out in the kitchen, coffee maker bubbling, stirring something that was probably pancake batter. She glanced up when Pepper appeared. "Good night?" she asked, with just enough of a smirk Pepper knew it didn't actually require an answer.

She got some bread to make toast. After it was in the toaster, she looked over at Nat. "You have my permission to hate me full force."

"I only hate you 70%. 30% of me is very happy for you."

"I sincerely appreciate that," Pepper said, and she meant it.

Nat lifted the spatula out of her batter to check consistency. "We have the life we have. I'm happy for you. And for Steve and Sharon. People should hang on to whatever joy they have."

"You're going to be the best auntie," Pepper told her. Nat looked a little sad and then turned towards the stove, and Pepper winced.

"Good morning," Sharon called as she came into the kitchen. "Pancakes?"

"Crepes," Nat corrected. "Start choosing toppings."

Sharon nodded and went to the fridge. Pepper's toast popped up, and she took it out to butter it. "Do we have strawberries?" Sharon asked.

Nat pointed. "She's allergic."

"Shows you how awake I am." Sharon looked at Pepper as she took blueberries out of the fridge. "I assumed you were who I could hear getting it on from the hallway."

Pepper took a bite of her toast. "Tony and I aren't loud."

"You were last night," Nat told her.

"Like two or three times," Sharon added. "Though I could hear something from that end of the hallway as I was coming out here that is now obviously not you."

Nat turned and raised an eyebrow at Sharon. "You know, she told me last night they weren't together. Emphatically."

Sharon shrugged and got a cup of coffee. "So did he."

Pepper stole a blueberry. She didn't like blueberries, really, but apparently Morgan did, so she ate them. "I feel like I missed something."

"Thor and Valkyrie," Sharon supplied. "According to both of them there was nothing going on between them, but morning sex noises indicate otherwise."

"I'm going to get earplugs," Nat muttered, pouring batter into the hot pan.

Pepper felt bad, because she and Nat had been companions in their misery. Now Nat was kind of alone with it, with apparently the soundtrack of people's reunions in the background.

She went back to the bedroom after she got some food in her. Tony was still asleep and she climbed back into bed just so she could curl up with him. He stirred enough to wrap an arm around her, but it was a while before he was awake enough to say, "Good morning."

"You need to figure out how to soundproof the bedrooms," what what she replied with.

There was a pause. "Who did we offend?"

"We're not the only offender. I feel bad for Nat having to listen to it is all. I used to hate it if Steve and Sharon made any noise. Other people's happiness can be surprisingly painful. Let alone reunion sex in stereo."

"Ah." He kissed the back of her shoulder. "I'll get on it."

"Thank you." She closed her eyes, just enjoying having his arms around her, something she thought she'd never feel again.

He spread his palm out over her bump, and she could feel as much as hear him sigh. "I can't believe this is real."

"Fifteen weeks. I'm due the end of November."

"Early Christmas gift."

"I had all the testing run. Problems are common given our age and all that, but she's just fine. I can't really figure how she happened, though. The math on that is astronomical."

He rubbed her bump gently. "I guess miracles do happen. Every once in a while."

She put her hand over his. "Your survival feels like a second one."

"Is this one of those things that come in threes?"

Pepper chuckled. "I don't know. Got anything else you want?"

He sighed. "Magic fix for everything that's fucked up?"

It occurred to her that they'd gone right to bed, and there were some things he hadn't been told. "They found Thanos," Pepper said. "This incredibly powerful woman who has Save the Universe complex that makes yours look like a second tier hobby showed up, and they tracked him down. She and Thor killed him."

There was a moment of silence as he seemed to process that. "They couldn't fix everything. Everyone is still gone."

She shook her head. "The glove and the stones were gone."

His arms tightened on her and he was quiet again. She listened to his breathing and counted heartbeats until he said, "So this is the world we have."

"There's still a lot of good you can do. That doesn't involve fighting."

"Fuck yeah, there is. Half the population is gone. There's going to be worker shortages. Automation is going to need to be stepped up."

"See, that sounds like a hobby that won't make me a widow." She paused. "Though we would technically have to get married first before I could be widowed."

"Yes, we should do that. Soon as possible, is my vote."

"Just the getting married part, right?"

He chuckled. "Yes, thank you. I'd rather not make you a widow for a few decades at least."

She turned over so she could see him. "You've got yourself a deal."

Cupping her face, he kissed her tenderly a moment. "Right now, however, I'm starving and want to find breakfast and start sketching ideas."


End file.
